March 11, 2002

A new virtual reality room at the University of Calgary lets researchers and medical students visualize body structures instead of requiring dissection. Four projectors display representations of the body on the walls of a 2.5-cubic-meter room, allowing scientists to view the images via stereoscopic lenses. They can also program the simulations remotely, using Java3D technology on a PC.

March 7, 2008

Stanford University researchers have developed a Web service that lets users turn a single two-dimensional image of an outdoor scene into an immersive 3-D model.

This had been a mathematically complicated problem. To solve it, the researchers developed a machine-learning algorithm that associates visual cues, such as color, texture, and size, with certain depth values, based on what they have learned from studying two-dimensional photos paired with 3-D data.

June 13, 2011

Using sophisticated imaging equipment, they constructed a 3-D movie of the brain as it changes while an anesthetic drug takes effect. The researchers said the real-time 3-D images seemed to show that losing consciousness involves a change in electrical activity deep within… read more

April 23, 2007

April 5, 2002

Researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have grown the first three-dimensional nanotubes, which are essential for next-generation computer chips and integrated circuits.

The method is based on a selective growth process that allows the nanotubes to grow perpendicular to the silica-coated substrate. By chiseling the silica into predetermined shapes, researchers can precisely control and direct the nanotube growth.

Nanotubes have properties that make them attractive as active nanoscale electronic… read more

July 14, 2015

3D printers could revolutionize food processing in the next 10 to 20 years, said Hod Lipson, Ph.D., a professor of engineering at Columbia University, speaking at IFT15: Where Science Feeds Innovation.

“The technology is getting faster, cheaper, and better by the minute. Food printing could be the killer app for 3D printing.”

August 2, 2011

3-D printing is being used to make tools and artworks, custom-fitted prosthetics for amputees, components for aviation and medical instruments, solid medical models of bones and organs based on MRI scans, paper-based photovoltaic cells, and the body panels for a lightweight hybrid automobile.

The beginnings of this technology may be making its way into your home within the next five years and sparking an industrial revolution in the process.… read more

July 31, 2008

Shapeways, a new online service, aims to bring customized manufacturing to the masses by allowing consumers to submit digital designs of products that are then printed, using 3-D printers, and shipped back, at prices typically between $50 and $150.

While some 3-D printing services already exist, they are geared to professionals familiar with rendering designs in software suitable for 3-D printers. Shapeways makes this process far easier.… read more

October 13, 2008

Shapeways.com is beta testing a new service allowing people to print three dimensional models.

Customers can upload designs or use a creation tool hosted at the Shapeways website then order a printed model of their designs for less than $3 per square centimeter. The printed items are shipped to the customer in ten days or less, bringing 3-D printing directly to consumers.

New stretchable, biocompatible materials with complex patterning could be used for creating a human nose or ear

June 5, 2015

Researchers at three universities have developed a new way of making tough — but soft and wet — biocompatible hydrogel materials into complex and intricately patterned shapes. The process might lead to scaffolds for repair or replacement of load-bearing tissues, such as cartilage. It could also allow for tough but flexible actuators for future robots, the researchers say.

August 12, 2003

Rapid prototyping machines (3-D printers) — which carve a model of an object out of metal, paper, plastic or starch – can now build moving parts, not just block models. University of California at Berkeley researchers are developing “flextronic” devices — or flexible mechatronics — a small model with flexible joints and electronic parts built in.

February 2, 2010

University of Washington researchers have built a three-dimensional scaffold out of a natural material, chitosan, that mimics the binding sites for stem cells and allowing the cells to reproduce on a clean, biodegradable structure.

Growing the cells in three dimensions better resembles conditions in the human body. It also allows for mass production, which will be needed for any clinical applications.